Deep Waters

Barbara Nadel

When the body of a young Albanian man is found under an Istanbul flyover
with his throat cut, blood feud seems the obvious explanation, since
his clan or fis is "in blood" with another. But why does he have a
rich English girlfriend, who is disfigured but thinks she is beautiful?

The mystery elements in Deep Waters are enough to power the plot,
and include a few red herrings to keep the reader on their toes, but
they have to share the stage. Inspector Ikmen's own Albanian heritage,
and revelations about his mother's death when he was a child, make
the case unusually personal. And one of his subordinates is courting
a psychiatrist involved in the case. (There's a bit of psychiatric
theory thrown in as well, presumably drawing on Nadel's own work in
mental health.)

The characters all seem a little like types: Ikmen himself is
incorruptible, his long-suffering wife is a devout Muslim and one of
his cousins is a transsexual, and his subordinates include a scion of
the Ottoman minor aristocracy, a Yazidi, a modernist intellectual,
and so forth. If Deep Waters is hardly high literature, however,
it's easy reading and conveys a feel for its Istanbul setting — which
made it a good choice as reading material for a trip to Turkey.